Saturday, October 15, 2016

Enthusiasm.


Muppets creator Jim Henson said: "Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what you enjoy doing."
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Right. But what if your degree of enthusiasm is not balanced by the same degree of skill? For instance, the poor slobs who appear for auditions for "...Talent" or "Idol" but who can't sing worth a lick, or who dance like a dork. All the judges agree, the audience agrees, but somehow, just because there's "enthusiasm" we feel as if the judges are being "mean."

Balderdash! By all means, follow your enthusiasm until it leads to something that you're good at! But, so sorry, that may have to be a hobby: being really good at painting cute little pink butterflies, or sketching really cool race cars...fun, but it is not likely to pay the utilities! There's a reason why a job is called "work" and a hobby is filed under "play." Happy that rare human for whom the job is a joy and never contains even a moment of drudgery--hah!

Oh, and while I'm on the subject: $15/hour for flipping burgers? Wait till some of them grow up (well, we can hope that happens, but I think we're seeing more and more people stuck in perpetual adolescence) and want to pay their employees what the market demands or the work deserves, only to be told by a power-tripping bureaucrat what the unarguable wage rate is and must be. Cannot these idiots do basic math--higher costs lead to higher prices. Duh. Sure, go find a study that says the opposite--it's out there, but, they're having fun with statistics, finding results to prove their point rather than doing basic facts.

Kills me.

Okay, back to the point--follow your enthusiasm, pursue your passion, and you might end up with the best job imaginable. Just don't bet the farm on it--remember, most of us came from peasant stock, and our forefathers worked daggone hard on the farm, at the gristmill, in the shop, in the orchards and vineyards, fishing or mining or logging! Their passion was to survive! ...and their names survive...Farmer. Miller. Smith. Carpenter. Viticulturist (okay, joking here). Fisher. Miner. Sawyer.

So, dream big, but expect to work, and work hard. Go, go, go!


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